Randomness about “beauty” and going hungry

Yesterday, I read a quote someone posted on FaceBook that was attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald:
“She is beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She’s beautiful, for the way she thinks. She is beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talks about something she loves. She’s beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she’s sad. No, she isn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She is beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.” This quote got my mind in a whirl about the fact that people say beauty is only skin deep and how important it is to me as a mother of three daughters to make them believe it.

Being beautiful on the outside is great! Right? We all wish to be more handsome, prettier, sexier, thinner, thicker, more youthful…..etc., etc. The media is full of pictures and videos of beautiful people with perfect skin, perfect teeth and soft, silky – perfect hair! How many of us stop and think to ourselves that we wish we were more intelligent? More kind? Do we wish to have a greater depth of spirit or wish to have the ability to persevere through the toughest of situations?

Indeed, there is a beauty that is only skin deep! As F. Scott Fitzgerald so aptly put it however, there is more to beauty than an outward appearance. Have you ever truly paid attention to someone who is speaking on a topic that they feel PASSIONATE about? Look in their eyes and the expression on their face and what do you see? Sit back and watch people interact with the person who is speaking passionately and what do you see? I bet you see people smiling, feeling comfortable and perhaps even feeling BEAUTIFUL themselves.

To have the ability to make others, as well as yourself, feel comfortable, intelligent and yes, even beautiful – truly beautiful – is almost an art form. To know deep down in the inner recesses of your mind that no matter your skin tone, size, gender, hair color or weight you are beautiful on the inside – as long as you have the ability to see the inner beauty of others as well as yourself.

The inability to feel and/or see this inner beauty may leave some feeling HUNGRY but the hungry I’d like to speak about is the physical hunger – not the psychical hunger so many seem to endure in this era of band-aid solutions and a microwave mentality. The physical hunger of going without food to feed your body is something I am familiar with from childhood and occasionally I am reacquainted, involuntarily, with this feeling.

Please don’t mistake what I am saying. I am certainly NOT starving. Not even close! I eat several times a day and in fact my husband makes fun of me because of how often he sees me eating a “meal”. In case you didn’t know, I am an endurance athlete currently training for my first 100 mile endurance event and this means that I eat..A LOT. I eat around 6 times a day on an average. Today I was ate breakfast and then my husband and I had to run out and do some errands……for FIVE hours. That meant that I did not eat anything after breakfast – for SIX hours.
For about 45 minutes it felt like the acid in my stomach was eating at my spine and I had gas pains emanating up from my belly into my back. This was such an uncomfortable feeling!! I said to my husband, imagine what it’s like to be a baby (meaning a young child) who regularly goes without eating! Imagine how painful it must be for their little bodies! Poor things…..It made me remember (not too fondly) of the days when mayonnaise sandwiches were lunch….and a treat was going to my Grandmothers’ house, picking some wild berries down by the river & having Grandma throw them into a bowl with some sugar.

Imagine going without food for days due to no fault of your own! Ugh! If I had to guess I would say that memories such as those previously mentioned are part of the reason why my daughters are (in my estimation) spoiled. Sad isn’t it that somewhere in my mind having access to an unlimited amount of food = spoiled?!